Queens of the goddamned Stone Age, The O2, London, UK. 21/11/2017

I thought that I would die. It was brutal in the most beautiful way possible, which is roughly what QOTSA’s entire philosophy is about. The shit was real, it was the real shit, going crazy, or crazy gets you, any words would be confine the experience. It was a mass burning of calories, mass dehydration, mass exhaustion, and mass drainage of all liquids and energy that were left in the bodies.

Beginning with ‘If I Had a Tail’, QOTSA knew exactly how to order the songs so as to give you the few needed minutes to breathe, before bombing you with their energy once again. The crowd was motionless during the first song, perhaps because everyone was trying to take a picture for there would be no chance to do that later. Everything was colourful and hazy after that, everything was dazzling, it was physically challenging, and it was the utmost experience for every lover of rock music.

‘If I had a Tail’ was followed by ‘Monsters in the Parasol’, ‘My God is the Sun’, and ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me’, during which the only thing I could feel was the crown pushing behind me. I couldn’t breathe and surely at times I thought I would die, that that was it for me, however, later, I came to realize the different and deeper levels which that feeling can extend to.

For that one hour and forty minutes that the band was on stage there were mosh pits, pogos, multiple of those at the same time, I can only imagine how that must have looked from the stage or from the seated area. Madness. Josh Homme cared to reassure everybody that it was all going to be alright at the end. And he was right.

QOTSA never lie. And it is one thing to assume that, because you believe in the truth of the songs that they have created, it is completely different thing to experience it all as it is happening live, there in front of you, to experience the songs that they play. QOTSA never lies – their songs, their words, and their concerts are the proof of that. There is no one that does it better.

After the initial adjustment, that was during the first few songs, the crowd found its common rhythm and the next few songs were one of the most liberating moments that I have had in my life. Fuck what you believe, even fuck what you know, any words would be able to create only a limiting and limited description of what actually went down.

All of the madness reached its peak at the end with ‘Little Sister’, ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’, and ‘Go With the Flow’ being played one after the other. Glasses were flying around, clothes were flying around, bras, people were flying around with their brains detached from their heads, their heads detached from their bodies.

It was my second QOTSA concert, but the first one to be in the standing area. Despite the fact that after the show and during the following days I felt like I had been beaten dead, I would never trade that experience for anything less. That’s what life feels like and QOTSA have always been true to that philosophy.

So go to a concert, spend your last dime if you have to, leave your boring job for a few days even if they threaten to fire you, take your friends and go to a show. Not only you will reinvigorated, but the power of life your blow your goddamned brains out.